Online shopping sales in South Korea surged 19 percent in May, fueled by brisk demand for clothing, foodstuffs and cosmetics, a government report showed Thursday.
 

Total transactions reached just under 4.24 trillion won($3.77 billion) in the cited month, compared with 3.56 trillion won a year earlier, according to the report by Statistics Korea.

 
But the May tally was down 1.1 percent from the previous month's 4.28 trillion won.

 
Purchases made through smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices also soared 74.6 percent on-year to 1.89 trillion won to account for 44.6 percent of all online sales in May. This marks a 2.7 percent increase from April.

 
The report also showed the country's total retail sales gained 2.1 percent on-year to some 32 trillion won in May, which marks a rise from 29.83 trillion won in the previous month.

 
Sales at department stores and large discount chains rose 2.7 percent and 8.7 percent on-year, respectively, with convenience store and supermarket sales moving up 33.5 percent and 0.8 percent from a year earlier. (Yonhap)